For the birds

I have an agreement with the birds ...
I feed them in the winter, they don't eat my crops during the summer.

I'm pretty good at keeping my end of the bargain, however I'm not at all sure the birds have ever agreed to anything.
But they are happy when I feed them!

Usually things work out okay. The birds eat some cherries but not too much of any other crop ... until this!

My sunflower shoots ready to take to market.

Of course sunflower shoots are not a major crop on our farm, but they are something that we grow & sell. 

The culprits are a family of bluejays living in our maple trees in the back yard. We grow the sunflowers under these trees thus providing a very convenient & handy snack for the hungry jays.

They don't touch the pea shoots...

or the cabbage shoots...

but even the newly seeded sunflowers are eaten.

So for now the boxes of sunflower shoots are languishing in the hot greenhouse, though I'm sure the bluejays will even find them there.

Today at market sunflower shoots were on sale - damaged goods!

And while we're talking birds ...

You may have seen this tree before in pictures on this blog. It is a large tree that is located at the back of our farm. It marks the boundary between 3 different farms.

A pair of hawks has set up house here and can often be seen soaring in the sky or sitting on a post in the neighbour's tomato patch.

These are beautiful birds

and fun to watch - we do get tired of their endless shrieking though.

But at least they don't eat the sunflower shoots!